BNP on Question Time

[Brazen]

Griffin attacks Islam on BBC show

British National Party leader Nick Griffin has used his Question Time appearance to criticise Islam and defend a past head of the Ku Klux Klan.

He also told a largely hostile audience that Winston Churchill would be a BNP supporter if he were alive, and insisted: "I am not a Nazi".

Anti-fascist protesters scuffled with police outside BBC TV Centre in west London before the show was filmed.

More than eight million people watched the show, triple its typical audience.

At its peak, 8.2 million people tuned into the BBC1 show.

Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said the BBC had legitimised the BNP's "racist poison" by inviting its leader onto the show but the corporation defended the move, saying it had a duty to be impartial.

One of the panellists, Justice Secretary Jack Straw, said it had been a "catastrophic week for the BNP because for the first time the views of the BNP have been properly scrutinised".

And following the programme, other panellists said Mr Griffin had been exposed.

Baroness Warsi, the Conservative peer and shadow communities minister, said "he does not have any political views other than a hatred for certain groups of people".

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "I certainly think that his credibility - for anybody who sees the show - is going to be seriously damaged by his performance."

Mr Griffin told BBC News too much of the programme had been a "beat up Nick Griffin programme instead of Question Time".

He added that of the 25 or so allegations made against him in the programme - he was only allowed to answer four or five of them and that was "grossly unfair".

And a BNP spokesman complained that the programme had focused entirely on Mr Griffin's views and ignored newsworthy stories such as the postal strike, Afghanistan and Europe.

"This was not a normal Question Time," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "It was 'let's have a go at Nick Griffin time'."

The BNP leader was booed at the start of the recording and accused of trying to "poison politics" as he was attacked by fellow panellists and the audience.

During the show the panel covered topics including whether it was fair for the BNP to "hijack" images of Winston Churchill, whether immigration policy had fuelled the BNP's popularity and whether Mr Griffin's appearance was an early Christmas present for the party.

He was asked by a member of the audience about why he had described Islam as a "wicked and vicious faith".

Mr Griffin said the religion had its "good points... it wouldn't have let the banks run riot" but it did not fit in with "the fundamental values of British society, free speech, democracy and equal rights for women".

His references to Britain's "indigenous people" prompted other members of the panel to challenge him to say he meant white people.

Mr Griffin said the colour was "irrelevant" and said Mr Straw would not dare go to New Zealand and tell a Maori he was not "indigenous". "We are the aborigines here," he claimed.

Mr Straw said what distinguished the BNP from other parties was that other parties "have a moral compass... Nazism didn't and neither I'm afraid does the BNP."

The BNP leader insisted his views had been widely misrepresented in the media and denied a string of statements attributed to him, including a quote from 2006 in which he said "Adolf went a bit too far".

"I am not a Nazi and never have been," he said, adding: "I am the most loathed man in Britain in the eyes of Britain's Nazis."

He admitted sharing a platform with former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke - but described him as "almost totally non-violent".

He said he had been trying to win over "youngsters" Duke was trying to "lead astray".

Challenged on his views on civil partnership, he said: "I said that a lot of people find the sight of two grown men kissing in public really creepy. I understand that homosexuals don't understand that but that's how a lot of us feel, Christians feel that way, Muslims, all sorts of people."

Asked about a quote attributed to him in which he equated six million deaths in the Holocaust with the flat earth theory he replied that "European law" stopped him explaining.

"I can't tell you why I used to say those things anymore than I can tell you why I have changed my mind," he said.

The justice secretary said when anybody put a specific quotation to Mr Griffin he tried to "wriggle out of it".

Asked whether immigration policy had fuelled the BNP, Mr Straw said he did not think it had and said he thought the BNP had been boosted by discontent with the main parties over issues like expenses.

But Baroness Warsi said politicians had a responsibility to take on the BNP on the issue of immigration: "Many people who vote for the BNP are not racist and therefore what we have to do is go out and say to these people as mainstream political parties we are prepared to listen."

Mr Griffin blamed the "political elite" for imposing "an enormous multicultural experiment on the British people".

But Mr Griffin was challenged by several black and Asian members of the audience.

One man asked Mr Griffin: "Where do you want me to go? I love this country, I'm part of this country."

While the programme was being recorded the anti-BNP protest continued. The Metropolitan Police say six protesters were arrested and three police officers injured in the protests.

Mr Griffin accused the protesters of "attacking the rights of millions of people to listen to what I've got to say and listen to me being called to account by other politicians".

But Weyman Bennett from Unite Against Fascism accused the BBC of "rolling out the red carpet" to Mr Griffin and said his appearance on the flagship discussion programme "will lead to the growth of a fascist party" and promote violence against ethnic minorities.

About 25 people managed to get through the gates and run towards the BBC building when security guards opened them to let in a car. A few minutes later they were led, dragged or carried back outside.

There were also protests outside BBC buildings in Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham, Glasgow and Belfast.

Welsh Secretary Mr Hain, who had tried to stop the broadcast, said: "The BBC should be ashamed of single-handedly doing a racist, fascist party the biggest favour in its grubby history."

BBC Deputy Director General Mark Byford said it had been "appropriate" to invite Mr Griffin to appear given the support the BNP received in the last European elections when it gained its first Euro MPs.

He said: "He was scrutinised and challenged along with the other panellists heavily by the audience, that was right in our view.

"It would have been quite wrong for the BBC to have said 'yes, you are allowed to stand in elections, yes you have a level of support that now meets the threshold but the BBC doesn't think that you should be on'."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8321683.stm

Anyone else watch it last night? I'm glad it went ahead as it showed Griffin up for the slow-thinking one-issue thug he is. Bonnie Greer put in a good performance, but did talk over him a bit too much which could add fuel to his argument that he wasn't allowed to answer all the issues. Having said that, he doesn't have the debating nouse of someone like Straw to come in with a strong argument and finish stating his case.

[Josquius]

Posted on the OTT already.
I recommend everyone to follow the link and watch the video. Pretty good stuff to see everyone scream at him.
And his attack on Straw over his dad being a conciencious objector. Bad play

[The Brain]

The Swedish Sverigedemokraterna (retarded anti-immigrant "right wing" but socialist party so far not in parliament) has been taking a beating in the MSM lately after some article about Islam.

Slargos or Hortense would know more.

[Neil]

And his attack on Straw over his dad being a conciencious objector. Bad play

Indeed.  Just because a man's father was a coward and a pro-Nazi doesn't mean the man himself is such.

[Martinus]

Sounds like an all-around lovely fellow. 

My favourite part is the "almost totally non-violent" expression.

[Martinus]

Of course, the Tories' Polish allies in the European Parliament, have a programme which is very much like that of BNP.

[Viking]

Posted on the OTT already.
I recommend everyone to follow the link and watch the video. Pretty good stuff to see everyone scream at him.
And his attack on Straw over his dad being a conciencious objector. Bad play

He should have worded that something like this "you call me reprehensable for going against the values that you say this country fought for during the the two great wars, do you call your dad reprehensable? would you be against your dad being on question time? given that he sided with the enemies of britain and refused to stand up and be counted, like my father." That would a scored more points. It's clear Griffin is taking cheap shots and not preparing hard hitting arguments like Straw did.

here is video of the whole thing

http://www.youtube.com/user/toedster#p/u/2/eGRq8BzjiO4

Griffin is partially put down. But I think he didn't do too badly, and he might get some sympathy from the vehemence with which he was attacked. He managed to avoid saying anything blatantly racist and he managed to avoid answering most of the questions asked of him by (unfortunately) hysterical audience members.

What I think he really should have been taken to task on his direct refusal to answer questions on his holocaust denial. He can legally say anything that David Irving has said, but more importantly, he can say why he said it or refer to the law that prevents him. He didn't do that and he wasn't pressed on that, it was brought up yes, but not pressed. It was a blatant lie on his part. 

Not a failing grade, but I think the hysteria of the "non-white" question askers and the strong pro-immigrant tone of the anti-BNP panel participants might be just helping the BNP out. Ignoring him like the monstrous irrelevance he is would have made a better result.

[Josquius]

Aha, watching the whole thing now- it seems Straw didn't slip up with mentioning WW1 afterall.. The BBC highlights made it seem that way.

And that Churchill would join your party isn't something to really be proud of...Even in the 30s he was regarded as a racist, imperialist dinosaur.

The 'we are aborigines' thing though was just bollocks.
I wish I was in that audience there so I could say
"So...Mr Griffin, you like your history don't you? Are you at all familiar with the dark ages or does your grasp not stretch further than all those shiny tanks and pretty planes?
The English are immigrants. Brutal pirates who came in and stole the country from the Welsh who were living there. And the Welsh in turn several thousand years earlier had came marching in and stole the land from its native inhabitants.
So if you want Britain to belong to its indigenous people you're looking in rather the wrong place with the English. Maybe we should give the Basques a call? I hear they're in the market for a country"

[Brazen]

"I don't want to give them the oxygen of publicity. I don't even want to give them the oxygen of oxygen."

[Winkelried]

Sounds like an all-around lovely fellow. 

My favourite part is the "almost totally non-violent" expression.

I wonder what an almost totally non-violent lynching looks like.

[Faeelin]

"I don't want to give them the oxygen of publicity. I don't even want to give them the oxygen of oxygen."

What an astonishing lack of faith in the British people.

[Admiral Yi]

The 'we are aborigines' thing though was just bollocks.
I wish I was in that audience there so I could say
"So...Mr Griffin, you like your history don't you? Are you at all familiar with the dark ages or does your grasp not stretch further than all those shiny tanks and pretty planes?
The English are immigrants. Brutal pirates who came in and stole the country from the Welsh who were living there. And the Welsh in turn several thousand years earlier had came marching in and stole the land from its native inhabitants.
So if you want Britain to belong to its indigenous people you're looking in rather the wrong place with the English. Maybe we should give the Basques a call? I hear they're in the market for a country"

That's a pretty dumb criticism.  All the people that we happily call aborigines migrated at some point.

[Warspite]

I can't understand the hysteria, really. If the BNP vote share keeps creeping upwards then I will mobilise, but I know first-hand that a lot of the "anti-fascist" crowd are also thugs that just happen to have a left-wing motivation for a ruck.

[Josquius]

That's a pretty dumb criticism.  All the people that we happily call aborigines migrated at some point.

Which is pretty much my point.
That he would chose the Maori as his example is telling with his dumb thinking; they're one of the few people in the world who are undoubtely the first in their area.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Just watched it now, hadn't intended to, but the newspapers were so full of it (with different versions of what took place) that I either had to waste an hour watching it or not have an opinion 

Brazen is right about Griffin IMO, a 4th-rate politician with severe synaptic response problems; Jack Straw looked like a bloody statesman compared to him 

I thought Dimblebore did a decent job as chairman; though he did let his contempt seep out a couple of times, which was rather unprofessional of him. I feel that the panel rather over-indulged themselves in their disdain for Griffin; attack him on the issues please............the target is quite large enough. Chris Huhne tried to score a few cheap points for the lib-dems, the old hack Straw was far too wise to do that on this particular show.